A Colorado biotech company plans to open a large-scale industrial hemp processing facility that will take the crop’s would-be waste — namely hemp stalks — and make it useful.

Marijuana topicals are having their day, particularly in Colorado where cannabis-themed spas are offering therapeutic massage and alternative treatments that use salves, balms and oils infused with cannabis. Generally, these topicals begin with a carrier oil like coconut oil or olive oil that is cooked down similar to butter when baking edibles.

In some cases the cannabis infusion is the main therapeutic ingredient. Most of the time, however, the topicals are blended with other essential oils that also have anti-inflammatory properties like lavender, frankincense or lemon grass.

A bill that would require dispensaries to post signs warning women not to smoke marijuana when they're pregnant won preliminary approval from the Colorado House yesterday.

The measure, House Bill 15-1298, appears below in its entirety.

The Boulder Transit Center at 1400 Walnut St. was briefly evacuated and the area around the downtown station shut down this morning after police received a report of a suspicious device that turned out to be a bong, according to dispatchers.

The report came in around 6:01 a.m. today after a security guard at the bus station found what he thought looked like a pipe bomb near the bike shelter on the east side of the station, according to police spokeswoman Kim Koblel. 

The guard described the object as a foot-long plastic pipe that was capped at both ends.

RTD evacuated the bus station and police briefly closed some streets in the area. But a Boulder police sergeant caught a look at the device and determined it was some sort of bong.

A block down Colfax from High Street sits a B&B where bed and breakfast goes hand-in-hand with bongs and buds. And it’s about to become a more permanent fixture in the pot tourism scene.

Hospitality management newcomers the MaryJane Group plan to close on a deal to purchase the Adagio Bud & Breakfast for $1.5 million on May 15. The company – which has leased the Adagio since April 2014 to test out the viability of its “canna-lodging” hospitality concept – is purchasing the property to run it permanently.

New York native Joel Schneider, CEO of the MaryJane Group, is the mastermind behind the Bud & Breakfast model.

NoCo Hemp Expo draws 1,000-plus to second annual event at The Ranch

Justin Petty of Los Angeles isn't too keen on laundry, so he likes to wear his T-shirts for a week.

Petty can wear the shirts multiple times made by the company he co-owns called Recreator Hemp Apparel, because of their material: hemp. Hemp is twice as durable as cotton and is hypo-allergenic and microbial, which prevents the buildup of odor, he said.

"We like to think of hemp as having the performance capacity of synthetics, but it's natural," Petty said.

Recreator Hemp Apparel, a KickStarter project that launched a year ago, imports the fabric from China because of legal issues and then cuts, dyes, sews and prints its line of T-shirts in Los Angeles.

A bill to warn pregnant women about the dangers of using marijuana had some Colorado legislators on Monday questioning whether that would be constitutional, since the mandate from voters who passed 2012′s Amendment 64 was to regulate pot like alcohol.

After a rigorous debate, House Bill 1298 passed on a voice vote, but just barely. The House of Representatives will take a roll call vote within the next few days to determine if the bill dies or advances to the state Senate.

The legislation would require pot shops to “display in a conspicuous location a sign that warns pregnant women about the potential risks caused by marijuana.” The state health department would determine the signs’ language.

FLORENCE - Cassie Alegria looked on as her 4-year-old daughter Ava Rose zigged and zagged around kids and adults at a picnic area Sunday afternoon.

Ava, wearing a padded helmet and a onesie pajama, repeatedly tried to stick her face in a small kiddie pool, distressing Alegria.

Ana has Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy that begins in infancy. After years of using prescription drugs, the two moved to Colorado from Arizona in February to begin treatment with cannabis oil.

"We're just so isolated. Just the disease itself is isolating," Alegria said. "Being around families that get it is everything."

At a farm in the foothills of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Corey Young tucks his client’s marijuana into a shoe box-sized container in an unmarked white van and heads out on the road.

“We don’t want to be going through a small town and have someone see bins in the back,” said Young, a founder of courier service CannaRabbit LLC. “We do not want to stick out at all.”

LOVELAND — Once banned because it is a close cousin to marijuana, hemp is coming back in Colorado and now has its own convention, attracting international interest as a new crop for farmers struggling to find new crops to stay afloat.

Hemp, which is fiber drawn from marijuana plants, was outlawed in 1937, but a new Colorado law allows it. However, farmers are still trying to find ways to get their plants and seeds to market because federal law still heavily regulates the industry.

Ten states went ahead and allowed the growing of hemp. Those states are Colorado, Washington, California, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia.